⌘ Please Be Advised

“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.” - Trump’s transgender tweet ban, July 26, 2017 * * * Put down your guns, strip down your fatigues, reattach your blown off limbs, pour the foreign sand out of your active combat boots, unpin your purple heart there on your chest, for you are not welcome here. Though your uniform looks as sharp as the next soldier, the top brass on your collar shines like lonely stars, you must fall out of the ranks of so-called heroes for you are not welcome here. One year of being out and serving without any unit cohesion issues, no readiness faults, no crumbling of machismo that solidifies brotherhood, there have always been transgender soldiers, but now there is a price tag for heroism that a draft dodger civilian in chief doesn’t want to pay for you are not welcome here. The military doesn’t want to foot the bill for your gender-reassignment but will spend ten times those millions on Viagra because their erections are more important than your standing tall as who you really are, though you still fight, and serve, and salute to, and stand for the freedoms this country does not allow you, for you are not welcome here. You have likely been a soldier since birth, fighting a war inside you, against the body you were born into, a secret mouth, a tightly bound up chest, your clumsy/sure feet stealing moments in mother’s high heels, this idea of body parts and mirrors, and hiding, and tucking, and redefining, you have life experience in fighting an enemy closer than skin. Maybe you finally proclaimed your own victory and won those battles and fighting for something became your mission, became your calling, but don’t call here, no, not this country, not this broken america, they do not want you anymore, soldier, for you are not welcome here. The motto for the U.S. Army Special Forces is De Oppresso Liber - Liberate the oppressed… except you, transgender solider. The motto for the U.S. Marine Corps is Semper Fidelis - Always Faithful… except to you, transgender soldier. What good are words if 140 characters become constitution? Please be advised… Put down your guns, strip down your fatigues, reattach your blown off limbs, pour the foreign sand out of your active combat boots, unpin your purple (broken) heart there on your chest, rise up out of your flag-wrapped coffin where you died fighting in a military, in a country that says you are not welcome here.